Basic Attention Token (BAT)

Basic Attention Token (BAT) Review – Crypto Coin Judge

Millions of internet users spend endless hours online and a sufficient amount of time is wasted by unwanted ads popping up while they are browsing. They often include unprecedented levels of malvertisements and privacy violations.

What is BAT?

In order to provide solutions to these frequently annoying occurrences, the co-founder of Mozilla, Brendan Eich, decided to introduce a niche browser, named Brave. The initial business model of this platform grabbed the attention of the public, because it was designed to block ads and the ad trackers that the website publishers demonstrated.

What was the initial business model?

The initial business model mainly focused on the idea of scrubbing websites of ads and ad tracking, then swapping those ads with their own. This model wasn’t aimed at individuals but at the anonymous aggregate of the browser’s user base. If a good amount of people started using the browser, Brave was going to share their ad revenue with content creators and users. Christened “Brave Payments,” this could swap current ad revenue.

Brave Payments were funded by users and created with Bitcoin. The company paid website publishers through users’ virtual wallets and kept 5% as their benefits from each wallet. Various online publishers complained about this business model and opposed it saying that this practice was violating federal laws, but Brendan pushed ahead with his plans.

The birth of BAT

Brave then looked for another recourse, and finally adopted the blockchain technology to swap Brave Payments, and came up with the introduction of a cryptocurrency project, named BAT, which represents “Basic Attention Token.”

1 – BAT is a new token in the digital advertising industry.

2 – Users can use it to obtain a variety of attention-based and advertising services on the Brave platform.

3 – Exchangeable between advertisers, publishers, and users, it pays users for their attention and publishers for their content, simultaneously providing advertisers with more in exchange for their ads.

How does BAT work?

The Ethereum-based BAT token is based on an innovative decentralized ad exchange.

1 – Brave’s BAT comes built-in with a ledger system, which measures a user’s attention and behavior, simultaneously providing full privacy to him/her.

2 – This measured data is then used to define the attention value of the ad, which is founded upon engagement within the active browser tab.

3 – Incorporated with machine learning, this ensures that users get only the most pertinent ads so that advertisers can be assured that they are having access to the optimal audience.

4 – From a user’s point of view, it operates on an opt-in basis.

5 – Rather than getting their details collected and utilized without his/her prior consent, a user gets an option to hold back all information (by not taking part in the project) or to choose to have the tokens and pertinent advertising.

6 – The user who opts in can rest assured that his/her data and information is secure, because data is only stored on the device and recognizable data is concealed.

7 – Micropayments of these tokens are generated via the Braver Ledger system.

8 – This is an open zero-knowledge proof scheme that rewards a user’s attention and behavior.

9 – The user also gets a little part of advertising spend, but only if they actively participate in the digital advertising marketplace.

10 – The user can anonymously donate that earned reward to publishers existing within the model if he/she wants

In addition, users are also allowed to make potential use of these tokens in a number of other ways, such as:

Donating these tokens to his/her preferred publishers and content providers

Making use of these tokens for his/her own ad serving

Having access to high and premium quality content

Buying digital goods or in game tokens

Selling them via a third-party exchange in exchange for other cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum

To start with, this system can be accessed only within the Brave browser, but when it is rolled out on other platforms and messaging apps like WeChat or Telegram, there will be no limitations for accessing it.

Most of these extensions and upgrades are slated to take place after June or July in 2018 especially when BAT Apollo will be rolled out.

This major initiative of the company also makes ways for public advertiser access and most probably the beginning of ad revenue.

BAT Competitors

Quite unlike other available coins, such as DigiByte (DGB), Digital Cash (DASH), and many more, the BAT coin allows users and publishers to monetize via its blockchain-enabled token, whereas Reddit Gold does not facilitate a mechanism for publishers and users to monetize through its blockchain-enabled token. Brave BAT is a premium membership program, which grants access to extra features to enhance experience.

Steem is another competitor. This is a blogging and social media platform, allowing users to earn revenue when they receive upvotes. Similar to Reddit, it also takes advantage of blockchain, but it is not a generalized means for users and publishers to be rewarded for content.

In addition, it is not a Blockchain-enabled digital ad platform similar to the Brave BAT. It is specific to the Steem platform.

Blendle is another platform with which Brave BAT may have to compete. It is a kind of iTunes for journalism, facilitating micropayments on a per-story basis. It provides readers with a hoard of stories depending upon their preferences.

Brave and BAT do not curate anything. Users just go about their business on the web and publishers get rewarded.

Blendle is not a token-enabled digital advertising platform.

Google, is a leading search engine company that generates most of its revenue from digital advertising. The search engine giant is at the center of the current digital advertising ecosystem. It benefits from the opaqueness and complexity that defines it.

BAT aims to strengthen the very publishers and users that are getting less than they ought to.

Unlike BAT, Google does not have a blockchain–enabled tokenized system of offering rewards.

Users are mostly familiar with how Google compromises their privacy.

There was a public pool of around 1bln BATcoins for trading, but the Brave foundation offered all of them for sale in the open market for approximately USD36million on 31 May 2017, and all this took place within only 30 seconds.

It is now hardly possible to buy this coin from its website, but if you are still interested you can choose to buy it from other crypto coin exchanges or platforms. Remember that you can use this currency to conduct all transactions in BAT.

BATcoin: Market Analysis

2 – The Ethereum technology may face software bugs, which could have a direct impact on Batcoin and there could be certain government regulations that may also affect its reputation.

3 – Similarly, there may also be several other possibilities that could lead the existing crypto market into instability and these potential happenings would cause possible fluctuations or a drop in price.

4 – If a rapid fluctuation arises, advertisers may tackle that instead of simply focusing on their ad campaign.

5 – In addition, intermediaries may also jump into the equation and then things would not be as hassle-free as they are now.

It is very clear that the global ad revenue is still dominated by Facebook and Google. A large number of renowned platforms, such as Snapchat, Twitter, Whatsapp along with several others generate their ad revenue on the basis of their system, or they depend on Google. Converting these platforms to make use of BAT is certainly going to be an uphill task from both a business and technical standpoint.

BAT team

The team boasts a number of highly talented and skillful individuals:

1 – Brendan Eich is the most talked about personality among both the crypto-community and in the internet browser arena. He is not just the co-founder of Mozilla, but also the chief architect of Netscape, a creator of Javascript and presently working in the capacity of CEO and co-founder of the current project.

2 – Brian Bondy, is another co-founder of Brave and a lead developer who has over 18 years of extensive experience as a software engineer/developer comprising stints at Khan Academy and Mozilla.

Brendan Eich has many reasons to be recognized and complimented here, most importantly because of the existing project. Otherwise, no other member of the team aside from him has the capability to create such an advanced and avant-garde browser and come up with the solutions for challenges that digital advertising is encountering these days.

Conclusion

It is too early to predict the growth of BAT, and anticipate how it is going to perform in the near future. However, if executed properly, this will be an outstanding solution for a burning problem. However, there is still a long way to go in order to be on par with the other giants mentioned above.

BAT roadmap

BAT Mercury (summer 2017)

BAT Gemini (fall 2017/winter 2018)

BAT Apollo (rest of 2018)

BAT budget allocation

Team: The Company has allocated 58% to its team of more than 20 engineers.

Administration: 10% has been reserved for legal, security, accounting and other associated administration costs.

Marketing: 12% has been held for the marketing department, which will focus on expanding awareness and adoption of the existing browser as well as the BAT solution. The same budget will also be used for the maintenance and growth of the worldwide community.

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